Banking regulators may push more homeowners into foreclosure by making it tougher to refinance subprime mortgages, said Angelo Mozilo, head of the largest U.S. home-loan lender. The Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency proposed guidelines last month that would encourage lenders to turn down borrowers who won't be able to afford mortgages after ``teaser'' rates expire. Rates on loans to people with poor or limited credit are typically fixed for two or three years and then rise. The plan is an ``inadvertent attack on liquidity exactly when it shouldn't happen,'' Mozilo, co-founder and chief executive officer of Countrywide Financial Corp., said in a phone interview last week from his office in Calabasas, California. The change would block more than half of subprime borrowers from refinancing mortgages at a time when slumping real estate prices have already caused delinquencies to rise to a four-year high, according to Mozilo. ... http://www.bloomberg.com

A group of senior former World Bank employees has urged beleaguered head Paul Wolfowitz to resign, saying he can no longer be an effective leader. Mr Wolfowitz is battling to remain in his job after admitting helping his partner win a promotion and pay rise. More than 40 World Bank officials, including 18 former vice-presidents, published their call in an open letter to the Financial Times newspaper. They said Mr Wolfowitz had "lost the trust and respect of bank staff". Mr Wolfowitz, who has apologised for his "mistake", has vowed to stay on to continue what he called "important work". He has said that he is confident he can carry out the World Bank's mission. But the authors of the letter said, "There is only one way for Wolfowitz to further the mission of the bank: he should resign." ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6582701.stm

The new US ambassador to Baghdad says the next few months are critical to reconciling Iraq's warring communities. In his first news conference, Ryan Crocker urged the government to make use of a US security plan in Baghdad. "I think the Baghdad security plan can buy time for what it ultimately has to be, a set of political understandings among Iraqis," Mr Crocker said. He also defended the thinking behind a controversial wall being built around the flashpoint Adhamiya neighbourhood. On Sunday Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said he had ordered a halt to the building around the Sunni enclave on the mainly Shia east bank of the Tigris, after the project drew strong criticism from residents and Sunni leaders. Violence has continued with three suicide bombers killing at least 27 people and wounding nearly 60 in various parts of Iraq, including one close to where Mr Crocker was speaking. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6582797.stm

China is calling on its officials to help make the Internet more civilized and less decadent, state media reported Monday, the latest push in a campaign to sanitize behavior on and off the Web. At a meeting of top Communist Party leaders chaired by President Hu Jintao, officials were told to build "an Internet culture with Chinese characteristics," and to "curb the spread of decadent and backward ideological and cultural material online," the official Xinhua News Agency said. The report didn't quote Hu directly or specify the types of offensive material that would be targeted. Hu has made improving moral education a signature theme of his administration, an effort that appears to be intensifying ahead of a once-in-every-five-years party meeting scheduled for later this year. Hu and others in the leadership will seek a renewed mandate during the meeting. It’s all Political Speak for imposing censorship...http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2007-04-23-china-civilized-net_N.htm?csp=34

Suicide attacks have killed at least 46 people and left more than 90 injured across Iraq, including a car bomb that exploded near a restaurant Monday afternoon, killing at least 19 people and wounding 35, police said. The attack occurred on a highway near Ramadi, a city 70 miles west of Baghdad, said Ramadi police Maj. Fuad al-Asafia, who provided the casualty figures. U.S. troops raced to the scene, found a pickup truck parked nearby that was loaded with explosives and chlorine powder, and destroyed it in a controlled explosion, al-Asafia said. Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, has long been a magnet for Sunni insurgents and a lawless haven for al Qaeda militants, but the U.S. military recently reported progress in securing and calming the city. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/23/iraq/main2715530.shtml?source=RSSattr=World_2715530

A democratic tidal wave swept France yesterday. A record turn-out of 84.5 per cent of registered voters in the first round of the presidential election propelled Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal into a fascinating - and possibly close - second round showdown in two weeks' time. The triumph of the centre-right candidate, M. Sarkozy, who took a projected 30 per cent of the vote, was broadly expected. The success of Mme Royal - who scored an estimated 25.2 per cent, one of the highest scores of any Socialist contender in the history of the Fifth Republic - was much more startling.Mme Royal confounded her critics, including many in her own camp. She became the first woman to reach the second round of a French presidential election. It remains to be seen whether her score will be high enough to give her the momentum she needs to overhaul M. Sarkozy in the final on 6 May....http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2474407.ece